[Gregorio Leti’s ‘English’ Encomiums]. In July 1679 Gregorio Leti was forced to flee Geneva accused of immorality due to the licentiousness of his writings. He was also deemed an agent of influence for his biography of the Catholic King Philip II, fully drawn from philo-Spanish texts, that included some anti-Protestant passages. He went to France where Colbert appointed him “Historian in the Italian tongue” (Historico nella Lingua italiana) to the court of Louis XIV. Leti, refusing to convert to Catholicism, went instead to England arriving there in October 1680. At the end of December 1682, Leti published the two volumes of his Teatro Britannico (British Theatre) in London. His unconventional examination of English domestic politics, including gossip about the first wife of the Duke of York, provoked such an outcry that the author was ordered to leave Britain. After reconstructing the English sojourn of Gregorio Leti, this essay examines three particular works: a panegyric in praise of Charles II’s heroic virtues (Panegirico in lode dell’heroiche virtù di Carlo II) preserved in manuscript form in Italian and French at the University of Liege and only in French at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin; the funeral ode to Queen Mary Stuart of England from 1695 (l’Ode funebre sopra la morte di Maria Stuart regina d’Inghilterra); and a poem in honor of William of Orange, also from 1695 (Il prodigio della natura, e della gratia, poema heroestorico. Sopra la miracolosa intrapresa d’Inghilterra, del real prencipe d’Orange. Hora monarca della Grande Bretagna, nel fine dell’anno 1688 [The Wonder of Nature and Grace, Heroic-Historical Poem on the Miraculous Enterprise of England at the end of 1688 of the Royal Prince of Orange, now monarch of Great Britain]). The examination of these encomiastic works provide insight into Leti’s complex personality and his political and religious ambiguities. Leti emerges as a new type of intellectual that makes his living selling books, rather than being dependent on a partron.
Encomi ‘inglesi’ di Gregorio Leti
VILLANI, STEFANO
2011-01-01
Abstract
[Gregorio Leti’s ‘English’ Encomiums]. In July 1679 Gregorio Leti was forced to flee Geneva accused of immorality due to the licentiousness of his writings. He was also deemed an agent of influence for his biography of the Catholic King Philip II, fully drawn from philo-Spanish texts, that included some anti-Protestant passages. He went to France where Colbert appointed him “Historian in the Italian tongue” (Historico nella Lingua italiana) to the court of Louis XIV. Leti, refusing to convert to Catholicism, went instead to England arriving there in October 1680. At the end of December 1682, Leti published the two volumes of his Teatro Britannico (British Theatre) in London. His unconventional examination of English domestic politics, including gossip about the first wife of the Duke of York, provoked such an outcry that the author was ordered to leave Britain. After reconstructing the English sojourn of Gregorio Leti, this essay examines three particular works: a panegyric in praise of Charles II’s heroic virtues (Panegirico in lode dell’heroiche virtù di Carlo II) preserved in manuscript form in Italian and French at the University of Liege and only in French at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin; the funeral ode to Queen Mary Stuart of England from 1695 (l’Ode funebre sopra la morte di Maria Stuart regina d’Inghilterra); and a poem in honor of William of Orange, also from 1695 (Il prodigio della natura, e della gratia, poema heroestorico. Sopra la miracolosa intrapresa d’Inghilterra, del real prencipe d’Orange. Hora monarca della Grande Bretagna, nel fine dell’anno 1688 [The Wonder of Nature and Grace, Heroic-Historical Poem on the Miraculous Enterprise of England at the end of 1688 of the Royal Prince of Orange, now monarch of Great Britain]). The examination of these encomiastic works provide insight into Leti’s complex personality and his political and religious ambiguities. Leti emerges as a new type of intellectual that makes his living selling books, rather than being dependent on a partron.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
